CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Maybe you would rather have Bob Wickman, inventor of the intentional balk, as the Indians' closer. Or Joe Borowski, getting by on guile and grit.

Neither of them was a power pitcher like Chris Perez, the Indians' outspoken and now unTweeting reliever.

Maybe the choice would be Jose Mesa, who was acquitted of charges of rape and gross sexual imposition when he played here. Welcomed back as a savior, Mesa maintained that status until he kept shaking off Sandy Alomar's fastball sign in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the 1997 World Series. At his core, Mesa lacked confidence. A doubting Joe brings little to the Table.

Perez has more talent than Wickman and Borowski. The controversies in which he has been involved are tempests in a teapot, compared to Mesa.

Some fans didn't like Manny Acta as a manager, but they also didn't like the way Perez ripped the manager after he was fired. "August wasn't baseball. it was pathetic," Perez said of a 5-24 Acapulco cliff-dive last season, in which mild-mannered Manny did nothing to rouse the club.

Perez grew tired of watching Acta not argue with umpires or get angry with underperforming players. Perez's comments were correctly viewed as piling on after Acta was sacked, but players need to believe their teammates and manager will stand up for them.

"A lot of that went out the door [with Acta]," said Perez of his various frustrations.

Enough of it remains, however, for Perez to have de-activated his Twitter account this week. As I wrote in a column about Perez and the fine levied on him by Major League Baseball last year, Twitter is a social medium that allows fans and reporters access to the unfiltered thoughts of players who use it.

Perez closed down his Twitter account this week after giving up three homers in two games on Sunday and Monday. The Twitterverse exploded with sometimes profane criticism. The Indians' closer said he shut down the account in order to maintain the focus on team goals.

After slamming Cleveland fans in the past, Perez should have known to duck after he had poor outings. "Their whole thing is, 'We want a winner.' Well, why do you support the Browns?" Perez said. "They don't win. They've never won. They left. You guys blindly support them. I don't understand it. It's a double standard, and I don't know why."

To his credit, he is an equal-opportunity ripper. He also criticized the Dolan family for being pinch-nickels last season, compared to Detroit's owner.

"[The Tigers] are spending money. [Owner Mike Ilitch) wants to win. Even when the economy was down [in Detroit], he spent money. He's got a team to show for it. You get what you pay for in baseball."

The front office wasn't happy with Perez, but they knew they had a two-time All-Star in him, too. He also happened to be indisputably right.

The only problem I had was when a whiny tone crept into his complaints. Last season, he said being booed at home "[ticks] me off."

"That stuff is reserved for road games," he added. "We don't want to deal with that crap. Here, good fans are supposed to help you try to get through the inning and say, 'Hey, you're only one pitch away,' or 'Hey, it's all right.' And then after I struck out [a Mariners batter], the mock standing applause just adds to it. You see their true colors."

But Cleveland is more of an eastern city that many realize. All of the losing, particularly the dismantling of a team that won two pennants and went to the playoffs six times in seven years as the last century closed, has left fans with a hard edge. But it is still not like Philadelphia or New York.

Perez has had difficulties ever since he couldn't get loose in the bullpen on Mother's Day in Detroit. The homers have probably been a result of shoulder stiffness, although he denies it.

Much of what Perez said has some truth to it. It is true, too, that his emotions led him to pick an ill-advised fight with the fans. The larger truths are that he is liked and respected by his teammates and by manager Terry Francona; that he likely has been coping with an injury; and that he is 104-for-118, 88.1 percent, since 2010 with the Tribe in converting saves.

If he is sound, I would give him the ball every time. So would Francona.

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